I Want My Yami!
by TheCartoonusMaximus
Summary: Three single yamis, with no parenting experience, have three little hikaris to raise and a world to scout out and conquer. No pairings, further explanation inside. CURRENTLY ON HIATUS, BUT I WILL RETURN TO IT AT A LATER POINT.
1. Chapter 1

**This is an idea that I was playing with a year ago, and I'm thinking off and on about picking it up again.**

**This story, "I Want My Yami!", has a plot taken from both the early episodes of 'Full House' (the ones with just the three single men and the three kids and none of them know what they're doing?) and also off of 'the Addams Family' and 'the Munsters.' We have our three, single yamis, who live the lives of bachelors... er, with three hikaris to raise. As I mention in the story also, yamis and hikaris are inhuman monsters (for the sake of this story), and living in the human world can sometimes puzzle them.**

**Anyway, it's just a cutesy thing I started, so please enjoy!**

**And, as always, I own nothing and no one used in this document.**

* * *

Chapter 1: "Class Reunion" 2/1/2014

Atem pulled his motorcycle into an open parking space in front of the Domino Preschool's Open House sign and dismounted, brushing a hand through his spiky hair to make certain it looked okay. He then turned to the safety seat that he'd mounted onto the back of his bike, unlocking the bars and buckles and sliding his hikari out.

"What's dis place, Yami?" the little one asked, sucking his thumb and staring at the big building apprehensively.

Atem smiled brightly at the younger one as he set little Yugi carefully on the ground and, taking his hand, began to lead the smaller boy towards the front door of the building. "It's a school, Yugi. You're going to come here and learn important things and make friends!"

"Friends?" Yugi asked eagerly, his amethyst eyes lighting up with interest.

"Of course, little one! It'll be fun, you'll see!"

Yugi nodded, happily scampering beside his yami as they walked through the door.

They were greeted by a chipper young lady with long, periwinkle hair and a clipboard. "Hi! Welcome to the Domino Preschool Open House! My name is Miho Nosoka, and I will be the guide and speaker for the day! And what are your names?"

"My name is Atem Pharaoh," the Shadow Creature answered, spelling the name aloud as she wrote it down on her list. "And this little shadow of mine is Yugi."

Miho smiled gently down at Yugi as the child poked his head out from between his yami's legs. "Hi, Yugi. I'm Miho, and, if you come to this school next week, I'll be your teacher! Now come on, we were just about to start the presentation!"

Picking his shy hikari up and placing the child on his hip, Atem followed the young woman into another room, where rows of chairs had been set up.

He sank down into an empty seat, positioning Yugi in his lap.

"Hey, Pharaoh!" a familiar voice called out from a few seats down.

Atem turned to see who had greeted him, his eyes landing on spiky blonde hair. "Malik! Long time no see!"

Malik Ishtar, a fellow Shadow Creature, was sitting just three seats away, holding his own hikari in his lap. He smirked and reached over the mother who sat beside him, high-fiving Atem while she growled unhappily.

"How rude!" the woman muttered, but was ignored by the two Shadow Creatures.

"Good to see you again," Atem told his old friend. "When was the last time we spoke? Was it at the Graduation Party at Darkness University?"

Malik shrugged. "It's been positively centuries!"

Of course, the humans who overheard them assumed they meant 'centuries' as an exaggeration; how could they know that 'centuries' was being used literally?

What no one else knew was that Atem Pharaoh and Malik Ishtar were not humans, but they were strange, otherworldly beings called Shadow Creatures from a place called the Shadow Realm. Adult Shadow Creatures, such as they were, were called yamis, and child Shadow Creatures were called hikaris.

Malik turned to his hikari. "Mariku, be a good little monster and say 'hi' to Atem and his hikari, all right?"

"Hi, starfish-head!" Mariku called happily.

Yugi pouted. "My name is Yugi! Not starfish-head!"

Mariku smirked. "My bad. Sorry, little Yugi!"

"I am not little!"

Growing bored, Mariku turned to the woman and her daughter who sat beside him, reaching out and pulling on one of the girl's locks of hair.

"MAMA!" the girl squealed, causing her mother to turn and glare at Malik angrily.

Malik just shrugged, knowing his hikari had done wrong but not caring enough to correct him.

"Well, I never!" the woman exclaimed, standing up and moving to a different seat, all the while trying to console her shaken child. "It's alright, Serenity, mommy's here! That horrible boy won't hurt you any more!"

Malik rolled his eyes and moved into the empty seat beside Atem. "Human children are so weak. They can't even take a little hair pulling!"

He snorted in slight frustration. "I mean, seriously! You should hear all the whining that these human children and their parents do when Mariku plays with them at the park we go to!"

Atem shrugged. "I'm afraid Yugi and I don't get out much. And we haven't been here in Domino that long anyway."

"Ah. Just got here from the ol' Shadow Realm, eh?"

As the two older Shadow Creatures spoke amongst themselves, the hikaris started playing together on their laps. Mariku, apparently feeling bad about making fun of Yugi's hair or maybe he was just bored, reached out grabbed a lock of the offending spikes on Yugi's head, giving it a good hark yank.

"Stop it, M'riku!" Yugi squealed, giggling uncontrollably. "That tickles!"

Mariku chuckled evilly, his eyes growing wide as some of Yugi's locks of hair turned to reach for him, engulfing his hand entirely and beginning to climb up his skinny little arm. He began to squeal with excitement, his lips peeling back into a smile.

"Yami!" Mariku shrieked happily. "Yugi's hair is trying to eat me!"

"Isn't that just adorable?" Malik cooed, watching them in amusement with Atem. "Isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen?"

They didn't get to ooh and aw for too long though, as Miho took her stand at the front of the room and began to speak, explaining to the parents all about the preschool.

* * *

"Well, I'll see you two next week then, won't I guys?" Miho asked, posing the question to Yugi and Mariku as they were heading out the door with Atem and Malik.

Both hikaris nodded eagerly, more than happy to come to these classes now that they had a friend.

"Yes, I think it's safe to say that Yugi and Mariku will be attending here," Atem told the young lady, Malik standing beside him and nodding. "They'll have so much fun, and you seem to be more than capable of taking good care of these children."

Miho blushed as the two very handsome men praised her. "I... well... Thank you!"

Just then, a man and a boy, both with white hair, entered through the door, the man immediately turning to Miho. "We're not too late for the Open House, are we?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but we just ended."

"Oh, blast it all!" The man slammed his hand hard against his forehead, making the boy at his heels flinch. He began muttering under his breath. "I knew I should have stolen a faster car..."

Atem and Malik stared dumbfoundedly at the man, their eyes widening in surprise. "Bakura?!"

"What?!" the Shadow Creature snapped as he turned to glare at them, his glare melting as he laid eyes on their faces. "Pharaoh?! Ishtar?! What are you doing here?"

"We're enrolling our little ones into this learning establishment," Atem answered, tugging at Yugi's hand and pulling the hikari out from hiding behind him. Malik did the same with Mariku.

Bakura's eyes widened ever so slightly and he smiled. "So, you've both been burdened with these little trouble-makers, too, I see."

"Your friends have both already enrolled their boys into this preschool," Miho interjected quietly, getting Bakura's attention again. "So, if you'd like to enroll as well..."

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure." Shrugging, Bakura pulled the little hikari off from where the boy had wrapped his tiny arms around his legs. "Name's Bakura Touzouko, and this is Ryou."

Ryou smiled shyly at Yugi and Mariku as his yami filled out the proper paperwork, and they smiled back.

Atem smiled to himself a little, happy to see his old friends again and happy to know that his hikari would have some friends as well.

Everything was working out just perfectly!

* * *

After everything had been signed on the dotted line, the three yamis took their hikaris and headed out to their waiting vehicles in the parking lot, still talking between themselves.

"That's why I don't take Ryou to that Sunnyside Park anymore," Bakura said as soon as Malik told him how awful his and Mariku's experiences in the park were.

"But, you can't keep your hikari cooped up in the house all the time!" Atem exclaimed. "He needs to get outside and play, burn off some energy!"

"Oh, relax!" Bakura responded. "I just said that we don't go to that park anymore, not that we never went anywhere!"

He smirked. "I found a quiet little park that those boring humans don't play in that often. I take Ryou there a lot, and he can run and play all he likes without those whiny, insolent mortals!"

Now the interests of Malik and Atem were piqued. "Where is this park, Bakura?"

"Oh, it's a peaceful little place not too far from here, I think it's near a church. There's a nice gate at the opening that reads... oh, botheration! Ryou, what did yami say the park sign said?"

Ryou smiled up at his yami, eager to be helpful. "It says 'Domino Cemetery,' Yami!"

"Yes, that's it!" Bakura leaned down, petting Ryou's white hair and making the smaller one giggle. "What a helpful little hikari I have, aren't you, Ry-ry?"

"Domino Cemetery," Atem repeated, glancing down at Yugi. "Yugi and I have never been to a park before, so we may have to go there with you some time."

"Yes, us too," Malik added, Mariku jumping up and down excitedly beside him. "It could be fun."

"Well, Ryou and I were planning on going tonight after I get off work," Bakura mused. "We'll probably get there at about 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning, I suppose. We could all meet there, if you like, and the hikaris can play and have all sorts of fun."

"Sounds like a plan to me!"

"I'm game."

"Alright then. We'll see you tonight in the Cemetery!"

Atem smirked as he picked Yugi up and strapped him into the backseat of his motorcycle. "You too, thief!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: "A Walk in the Park" 2/1/2014 – 2/28/2014

* * *

Atem stood in front of the gate that led into the Domino Cemetery, Yugi asleep in his perch on the yami's hips. Malik sat on the ground nearby, Mariku asleep in his lap.

It was nearly 1:30 in the morning, and not only were the hikaris sound asleep but the yamis were about to fall asleep as well.

They were about to give up and go home when Bakura walked up, carrying Ryou on his back.

"Where have you been, thief?" Atem asked, seriously annoyed. "We've been waiting out here for quite awhile. You said you'd be here by at least 1:00!"

Bakura rolled his eyes as he set his hikari on the ground beside him, the perky child looking around eagerly with wide eyes.

"Look, work took a little longer than usual, alright? Stop your whining at me!" He looked away, scoffing under his breath. "Insolent fools."

Ryou gazed up at his yami expectantly. "Can I go play now, Yami?"

"Of course you can, Ry-ry," Bakura cooed to the child in a motherly sort of way. "Just as soon as your little playmates decide to wake up from their nap."

"And how are we supposed to get inside anyway, thief?" Malik asked, poking Mariku in the ribs to wake him up. "In case you haven't noticed, there seems to be a large fence and a gate with a lock on it, so apparently the park is closed."

Bakura smirked. "Just follow me, boys. Just follow me."

He led the other yamis to a large tree that stood right outside the fence. Some of the branches went over the fence and into the cemetery.

Placing Ryou onto his back again and instructing the hikari to hang on tightly, the white-haired yami thief shimmied up the tree and out onto the one of the branches, dropping down onto the other side of the fence and landing lightly on his feet.

"That's how you get in," he explained, placing Ryou back down on the ground. The little hikari scampered off happily as soon as his feet hit the dirt beneath him. "Get the picture?"

Nodding, Atem and Malik each tried the tree tactic as well, soon finding themselves and their hikaris inside the cemetery.

* * *

Within minutes, the yamis were relaxing on some memorial benches while Yugi, Ryou, and Mariku chased each other in circles around the tombstones.

"This is a very nice place," Atem remarked. "It's quiet and wonderfully creepy, there's places to sit and rest everywhere, there's little buildings where you could duck in if you needed to escape bad weather or the like, and with the large fence running all around this place you can let your hikaris run wild in here and do as they please without you having to worry about them too much."

Malik nodded beside him. "Why don't people use this place very often, Bakura?"

"I don't know. Lack of taste, I suppose."

"You can't catch me, you can't catch me!" Yugi was shrieking. "You can't catch – OOF! _YAMI_!"

Rushing towards where his hikari had fallen, Atem found that Yugi had fallen into a deep, rectangular hole in the ground. A mound of dirt stood beside the great hole, a shovel poking up from it.

"What is this, Bakura?"

Bakura shrugged. "I don't know. Sometimes there's holes like that that seem to show up out of nowhere. Done during the daytime when Ryou and I aren't here, I suppose. And then, the next night the shovel will be gone and all the dirt packed in again, and then another one of these stones will appear at the head of it later on."

"I think it's where they plant a stone seed!" Ryou cried out excitedly. "They put the seed in there, cover it with dirt, and then a new stone grows right out of the ground!"

Mariku scratched his head in confusion. "But if they're going to put a seed into the hole, why haven't they done it yet, Ryou?"

"Silly, M'riku! Since the hole's so big, the seed must be giant-antic! So it would take them a long time to drag the great big seed over to the hole. Plusses they gotta lift it over all the udder stones in the park too."

Bakura chuckled and ruffled Ryou's hair. "What a smart little hikari I have!"

Malik, meanwhile, was eying the shovel with interest. He turned and smirked at the others. "Want to find out for sure what goes into these holes?"

No one else had really thought about the possibility of digging the holes up, but now they were all very interested. And with six Shadow Creatures and a shovel all working together, they soon had a few other holes dug up.

"Look, Yami!" Mariku cried out as he peered down with fascination. "There's a big pretty box down there!"

"It looks expensive..." Bakura commented, almost drooling. "I want to steal it!"

Ryou looked at the large box and then back at his yami. "I don't think a stone seed that big will fit in your pockets, Yami."

"What's in it, Yami?" Yugi asked, tugging lightly on Atem's hand.

Atem smirked. "Only one way to find out!"

So saying, he jumped down into the hole and forced the lid off the box, his eyes narrowing in confusion when he came face to face with a sleeping man. "Oh, sorry, sir! I didn't know there was someone in here!"

The man didn't move. He didn't wake up, and he didn't even seem to breathing.

"I think he's dead, Atem," Malik remarked from somewhere up above him.

"So it would seem."

Yugi began to squeal and giggle. "Dead people – eeeeew!"

"What's 'dead,' Yami?" Ryou asked.

Malik chuckled. "Well, that guy is for starters."

Bakura glared dryly at his friend before turning back to his hikari, patiently explaining the subject as best he could. "'Dead' means that something or someone isn't alive anymore, Ryou. Like on the funny movies we watch before bed every night."

The little boy's brown eyes lit up with interest. "Oh! You mean like a zombie?!"

"No, Ry, that's the _un_dead. That's different. 'Dead' is more like... well, you remember what happened to the killer's victims on 'the Seven Deadly Sins?'"

Ryou nodded, now fully understanding. "Oh, okay."

"What are the killer's victims like, Ryou?" Yugi asked curiously.

His friend pointed down into the box in the ground. "Like that, but with more blood."

"Oh."

Having gotten that explanation out of the way, the hikaris began to amuse themselves by playing around with the poor dead man's clothes, hair, and body. Leaving the kids to their own amusement, the yamis wandered off, digging up other graves and checking through the people's pockets to see if there was anything of monetary worth buried with them.

Their fun didn't last quite as long as they had thought it would though, because shortly two men came along to put a stop to their enjoyment.

Atem recognized the uniform that the first man wore as that of a police officer, and, judging from the key ring that the other man held, he must have been the cemetery caretaker. "Hello, officer."

Yugi skittered over to stand beside his Yami, shyly staring up at the two men with interest. "Did they come to play with us, Yami?"

The two men stared down at Yugi with twitching eyebrows. Yugi was adorable, that was for sure, but the arm of a corpse that he carried in his hands sort of ruined the cute effect.

"What exactly are you people doing?" the police officer finally asked. The question almost didn't make sense though, because he was obviously looking at all the opened graves and watching while Malik dug up another one.

"Isn't it kind of obvious?" Bakura growled in frustration. "We're uncovering the dead that were buried here. Is there something wrong with your eyesight?"

Maybe it was what Bakura said; maybe it was the odd presence of these small children that were happily giggling as they tore a corpse to shreds; or maybe it was the way that the three strange men were glaring at him so curiously. Whichever the reason, the caretaker turned and fled suddenly, calling to the police officer over his shoulder, "I think I'd better get going you look like you have things under control bye!"

Feeling abandoned, the officer stood up straighter. "Right. Well... Can I ask _why_ you're digging up the graves? And why your sons are playing with dead people's body parts?"

"Because it's FUN!" Mariku suddenly cried out, ripping a head off of a corpse and using it to play 'monkey in the middle' with the other two hikaris. "This is SO much BETTER than that horrid toy store!"

The poor cop looked as if he were going to faint dead away.

"Um... You see..." the officer tried to speak, his words coming out in a stammer. "Digging up graves and messing with the bodies is kind of... illegal."

"You're not going to arrest us for enjoying ourselves, are you?" Malik asked, the veins in his face bulging. It made the poor cop swallow nervously.

"Well..."

"Hey, Pharaoh!" Bakura suddenly called out, getting Atem's attention. "Why don't we teach our hikaris how to play a Shadow Game?!"

At this, both Atem and Malik smirked at Bakura, and the three younger Shadow Creatures perked up with interest; they'd never actually gotten to watch a Shadow Game being played, so this would be interesting to watch.

* * *

After having their fun with the police officer though, the hikaris were noticeably getting pretty tired, what with it being several hours past their bedtimes. So, the yamis took their smaller companions back to their parked motorcycles and strapped them on, heading back to their apartments to get some shut eye.

After all, they planned on coming back tomorrow, and the little ones needed to be filled with energy if they were going to play some more, right?

Who knows? Tomorrow they might get to learn how to Penalty Game someone!


End file.
